I tried to make that exact argument when I was buying a hammer from Homebase but they said fading into the background of an observing consciousness is not the same as merging into a single entity with it.

appreciate this article, it's a difficult argument to make to some people

The "just a tool" refrain gets on my nerves because of the implication...

A photocopier is also just a tool... But nobody's delusional enough to think you can write an essay using a photocopier as an "assistive tool" without compromising your claim of authorship. But I'm expected to overlook when someone says they made an "AI assisted" artwork/novel/article, as if I'm too dumb to know that could well mean you didn't actually make it.

This is every bit as obnoxious as when they try and claim that a photographer doesn’t take a picture, tHe cAmErA dOeS!

Or how a musician that records analog instruments plugged into using digital audio software isn’t creating music.

They’re desperate to defend their hackish soulless content.

it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

they used AI as a search tool and verified all the sources

feeling better now? too dumb to understand?

This is a better discussion of this topic, imo: https://www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05/just-a-tool.html.

AI is basically a drive through window library where the books are stolen and the librarian answers your questions about the subjects covered in those books by using a ouija board to composed the answers. Maybe the librarian would be one of those special people with photographic memory who turns their eyes upwards pretending to comoute something in their eye sockets before answering. But every so often they get a twitch or a full body convultion.

That's what it could mean, but you'd be foolish to assume that.

Really good read. Making the car comparison and all its effects hammers (pun intended) down that "just a tool" can be an incredibly complex thing that needs a lot of variables to work properly. A hammer is a simple tool, a computer is not simple - there's a global logistics chain that allows their existence - and neither is AI.

We need to fight back against design that flattens our humanity at the benefit of efficiency and productivity. We need to question how our tools have created infrastructures and landscapes that are hostile to human existence.

Emphasis mine. I've been thinking about that a lot. Everything is about being more efficient, more productive. Fuck that shit, I wanna enjoy life.